I’ve been working out for 8 years, but have only recently noticed improvement, thanks to advice from this site. However, I have recently noticed that I’m getting weaker in most of my lifts. My protein and calories are pretty good. I have oatmeal+protein powder for breakfast, Surge after my workout, a protein shake an hour later, a dinner of lean meat, vegetables and complex carbs for dinner, and then another protein shake before bed.
I work out M-F with a three day split and cardio all five days, plus yoga on Saturday. If I weren’t getting enough food wise, would I be losing weight? Currently I’m 235 lbs. w/ (according to my Tanita Bodyfat monitor) 32% bf. (Which seems a little high to me, but probably not that far off.) Like I said, I’m just getting a handle on all of this, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
eating less doesnt make you lose weight metabloism is about what you you and how often. Use full body workouts 3 times a week and dont do cardio so much and how long do u do cardio for? do interval cardio 30 seconds all out slow a minute repeat do that for like 15 minutes. Eat at least 3500 calories a day probably more like 4500 if your trying to gain muscule 300 grams of protein at least.
you have to be pretty fat to be 32% body fat espcially at 235 and 5 11 thats probably your bmi which doesnt mean anything thats jsut a stupid thing for people who are moribidlly obese like most of america. REad G-Flux and other nutrion articel on here for advice
[quote]beebuddy wrote:
If you are training and getting weaker it is because you are either over-training or not eating enough or both.
How many sets of excercises do you do on a typical workout?[/quote]
I’ll usually circuit 3 exercises per body part, doing 3 or 4 sets of each. On weight training days I do 35 minutes of elliptical/running/biking, and on non-weight training days I do 45 minutes of elliptical/running/biking. I’m never hungry, if that means anything. I try to eat throughout the day. And while definitely not cut, I’m not that overweight.
[quote]budlight1 wrote:
eating less doesnt make you lose weight metabloism is about what you you and how often. Use full body workouts 3 times a week and dont do cardio so much and how long do u do cardio for? do interval cardio 30 seconds all out slow a minute repeat do that for like 15 minutes. Eat at least 3500 calories a day probably more like 4500 if your trying to gain muscule 300 grams of protein at least.
you have to be pretty fat to be 32% body fat espcially at 235 and 5 11 thats probably your bmi which doesnt mean anything thats jsut a stupid thing for people who are moribidlly obese like most of america. REad G-Flux and other nutrion articel on here for advice[/quote]
the beginning of this post is incoherent, and the rest is just stupid. why are you telling him to do less cardio when you don’t even know how much cardio or how intense it is? why should he do 30 seconds intense and 1 minute slowly? why does he need a magical number of 3500 calories a day? 4500 calories even? dude, this guy’s obviously trying to lose weight and lean up. if he’s 5’11 and fat he doesn’t necessarily need 3500 calories a day. it depends on variables that we don’t really know, yet.
[quote]Pirate Prentice wrote:
beebuddy wrote:
If you are training and getting weaker it is because you are either over-training or not eating enough or both.
How many sets of excercises do you do on a typical workout?
I’ll usually circuit 3 exercises per body part, doing 3 or 4 sets of each. On weight training days I do 35 minutes of elliptical/running/biking, and on non-weight training days I do 45 minutes of elliptical/running/biking. I’m never hungry, if that means anything. I try to eat throughout the day. And while definitely not cut, I’m not that overweight.[/quote]
can you give us any more details about your routine? does your performance decrease as you get towards the end of your workout/your final sets of an exercise? i.e. are your last exercises of any given workout performed at a significantly lower intensity than your first exercises?
It sounds like you are overtraining. This is good and bad. It’s good because you obviously don’t lack intensity and focus in your workouts. It’s bad because it doesn’t work.
From now on 9 sets ONLY. Pick your excercises and do no more than 9 sets until you feel comfortable with your progress. Also, no more cardio on lifting days. I would cut out cardio altogether but some people like it.
Do this for 3 or 4 weeks and you will start making gains again.
[quote]beebuddy wrote:
It sounds like you are overtraining. This is good and bad. It’s good because you obviously don’t lack intensity and focus in your workouts. It’s bad because it doesn’t work.
From now on 9 sets ONLY. Pick your excercises and do no more than 9 sets until you feel comfortable with your progress. Also, no more cardio on lifting days. I would cut out cardio altogether but some people like it.
Do this for 3 or 4 weeks and you will start making gains again.
Also sleep more. :)[/quote]
i don’t like the idea of giving a fixed number of sets. it depends on his conditioning, the intensity <% of 1RM> being lifted, the rest times, the frequency of similar movements per week, etc…
there’s no magical number for total sets. rather, what i always recommend is doing the maximum amount of volume that you can tolerate while still making steady progress in your performance. it’s all about trial and error <not that there aren’t trends in what’s usually good and what’s usually bad, but…>.
““i don’t like the idea of giving a fixed number of sets.””
Well, either way I think we are saying the same thing. Nine sets is fine for a beginner and when he is condident in his progress he will move along.
It depends on his way of thinking as to which advice rings true for him.
One concern I had is that I am not sure his goal is to gain strength and that is how I addressed his post. Upon second reading I wonder if he isn’t trying to lose weight. If so, the advice still applies to the extent that he does seem to be overtraining.
BTW, I wasn’t suggesting you are a beginner. But nine sets is fine for a beginner so I think it’s a conservative number of sets for someone to move back to if they are overtraining.
Huey’s advice is good also. It’s just too technical for me.
[quote]Pirate Prentice wrote:
I have oatmeal+protein powder for breakfast, Surge after my workout, a protein shake an hour later, a dinner of lean meat, vegetables and complex carbs for dinner, and then another protein shake before bed.
-P.[/quote]
Is that the full list of food that you eat in a day? If so, you are missing fats and are only having one meal with a whole food source of protein instead of just shakes.
I was giving the guy tips he obviously didnt eat enough and he says hes getting weaker i was telling him to eat more chill the f out. who are u an fing doctor sorry i told him to do less cardio and do interval training.Is that not a good suggestion?
cause thats all im offering him is suggestion what makes your opion better than mine smart guy? if he 235 pounds hes going to need more than the 1000 calories he described to get his bmr normal. so keep your comments to your self casue i dont feel like hearing then.
Original poster - stick with it buddy. It will take a while to get everything dialed in right. You are on the right track eating the same foods each day. If you are getting weaker, I would add 1 more meal to your daily schedule and maintain for a weak.
Whilst doing this, monitor your bodyfat to make sure there’s no increase. There’s always a bit of weakness involved with dieting but you should be able to maintain the weight you’re moving, maybe losing a few reps here and there.
Don’t get disheartened, stick with it. It’s a long road but the rewards are many. More reading on this site will help, especially the articles by Berardi.
[quote]hueyOT wrote:
Pirate Prentice wrote:
beebuddy wrote:
If you are training and getting weaker it is because you are either over-training or not eating enough or both.
How many sets of excercises do you do on a typical workout?
I’ll usually circuit 3 exercises per body part, doing 3 or 4 sets of each. On weight training days I do 35 minutes of elliptical/running/biking, and on non-weight training days I do 45 minutes of elliptical/running/biking. I’m never hungry, if that means anything. I try to eat throughout the day. And while definitely not cut, I’m not that overweight.
can you give us any more details about your routine? does your performance decrease as you get towards the end of your workout/your final sets of an exercise? i.e. are your last exercises of any given workout performed at a significantly lower intensity than your first exercises?[/quote]
Yeah, sorry for the lack of details. My performance doesn’t decrease particularily toward the end, at least in regard to intensity. I go to failure on almost every set, so I don’t have full strength left by the end, but my intensity is still strong. My workout changes quite a bit. I have an internet trainer, Projectfitness.com, that I use. Not fancy and not the best, but more affordable than actually having a trainer at the gym.
BTW, I wasn’t suggesting you are a beginner. But nine sets is fine for a beginner so I think it’s a conservative number of sets for someone to move back to if they are overtraining.
Huey’s advice is good also. It’s just too technical for me. :)[/quote]
Even though I’ve been training for 8 years, I still consider myself more or less of a beginner. As for % of 1 rep max, I have no idea what mine is for any of the exercises. My trainer has me do 8 to 15 reps for my workouts.
Original poster - stick with it buddy. It will take a while to get everything dialed in right. You are on the right track eating the same foods each day. If you are getting weaker, I would add 1 more meal to your daily schedule and maintain for a weak.
Whilst doing this, monitor your bodyfat to make sure there’s no increase. There’s always a bit of weakness involved with dieting but you should be able to maintain the weight you’re moving, maybe losing a few reps here and there.
Don’t get disheartened, stick with it. It’s a long road but the rewards are many. More reading on this site will help, especially the articles by Berardi. [/quote]
Reading all of the posts here, I think I might be under-eating. What I posted earlier is the extent of my daily intake. And I don’t know what my goal is right now – losing weight or gaining strength. I basically just do what my internet training site e-mails me. And I think that is a major mistake on my part. But I will stick with it. And sorry for abandoning the thread for a while. I had a sudden invite to go hiking an climbing at Acadia Nat’l park, and I couldn’t turn it down. I appreciate all of the advice.
